Water Cycle Quiz at a Glance
The water cycle is the endless journey of water between the oceans, the air and the land: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection, with transpiration, sublimation, snowmelt, runoff, infiltration and groundwater flow along the way. Tap each stage on the diagram, then print the worksheet for class.
- Stages to find
- 10
- The big four
- Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection
- Water in the oceans
- About 97% of the Earth's water
- Powered by
- The Sun and gravity
- Worksheet
- Blank and answer key, one A4 page
- Cost
- Free, no sign-up
How to Play the quiz
- Before a round, the diagram shows every name: study it, or tap any dot to see what it is.
- Pick a round: the big four, every stage, or "What happens here?", where a description is given instead of a name.
- Tap the dot for the stage named. Right turns green; wrong shows you where it was.
- Print the worksheet (blank, with numbered stages) and its answer key for a lesson or homework.
The four main stages
The Sun warms the sea, lakes and rivers, and water turns into vapour and rises: evaporation. High up, the air is colder, and the vapour cools into tiny droplets that make clouds: condensation. When the droplets grow heavy, they fall as rain, snow, sleet or hail: precipitation. The water then gathers in oceans, lakes and rivers, and in ice and underground: collection. About 97% of the Earth's water is in the oceans.
The other stages
Transpiration: plants draw water up from the soil and give off vapour through their leaves. Sublimation: snow and ice turn straight into vapour on dry, sunny, windy days, especially high in the mountains. Snowmelt: in spring, snow and ice melt and feed streams. Surface runoff: rain that does not soak in flows downhill into streams and rivers. Infiltration: water soaks into the soil. Groundwater flow: water moves slowly through rock underground, sometimes for thousands of years, and comes back out in springs, rivers and the sea.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four main stages of the water cycle?
Evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection.
What powers the water cycle?
The Sun's heat lifts water into the air as vapour, and gravity brings it back down as precipitation and pulls it downhill to the sea.
What is the difference between evaporation and transpiration?
Evaporation is water turning to vapour from oceans, lakes, rivers and wet ground. Transpiration is the vapour plants give off through their leaves. Together they are sometimes called evapotranspiration.
Where is most of the Earth's fresh water?
Frozen in ice caps and glaciers, then underground as groundwater. Rivers and lakes hold only a small part of it.
Made by Kashif Sulehria in Lahore, Pakistan. Updated November 2, 2026.